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Fig. 6 | Critical Care

Fig. 6

From: Identification of novel sublingual parameters to analyze and diagnose microvascular dysfunction in sepsis: the NOSTRADAMUS study

Fig. 6

Cartoon showing the pathophysiologic concept of capillary (de-)recruitment in healthy conditions (a, b) and during sepsis (c, d). The respective ends of the spectrum of actual measured RBC velocities are indicated in the red circles. Conditions shown in A-D refer to corresponding green/red bold letters in Fig. 3B). In theory, higher RBC velocity states (low supply demand ratio, b, d) should go along with slightly thicker glycocalyx than lower RBC velocity states (high supply demand ration a, b). Furthermore, RBC flux is actually controlled by arterioles rather than precapillary sphincters. These details have been omitted for the sake of clarity

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Critical Care

ISSN: 1364-8535